11 of the biggest ever soap blunders, from Coronation Street's forgotten death to EastEnders' live mishaps

Working on a soap is a tough job. There's a fast, never-ending pace to keep up with, dozens of episodes per month to get right... not to mention an eagle-eyed audience of millions who are eager to spot even the slightest slip-up.

Recently there have been loads of reports online about so-called "soap blunders" – some of them glaring mistakes, others just fans nit-picking over nothing. So here, we're cutting through the rubbish to celebrate 11 of the biggest blunders in soap history.

Soap bosses usually keep quiet when they're caught making a humiliating script error, hoping that everyone will quickly forget. But this one was so embarrassing that it even prompted an official statement from Corrie's producer.

When Kevin Webster reflected on Maddie Heath's death by noting how "it must be hard burying one of your kids", Corrie fans were quick to point out that Kevin actually lost his own son Jake in 2000 and seemed to have somehow forgotten all about it.

If only they'd listened to Michael Le Vell, who plays Kevin. He said a few months later: "I did mention it when I saw the script but it fell on deaf ears at the time." We bet the writers won't ignore him twice!

When EastEnders broadcast its first ever live episode in 2010, anticipation was sky high as the show had promised to finally reveal the identity of Archie Mitchell's killer. But nearly as appealing for fans was the added anticipation that a hard-pressed actor might forget a line.

That's exactly what happened to poor old Scott Maslen, who plays Jack Branning, at the very start of the episode. In a scene with co-stars Lacey Turner, Jake Wood and Charlie Clements, an under-pressure Scott was seen getting very flustered and stumbling over the same line.

Although this did actually fit pretty well with the all-round panic of the tense scene in question, Scott later confirmed that he'd messed up.

In fairness, there were various other small slip-ups in the episode too, including Barbara Windsor referring to Janine as "June" and Jake Wood getting caught on camera sticking his fingers down his throat for a scene where Max threw up. But sadly for Scott, his mishap is the one everyone seems to remember.

Things got worse the following evening as Jo Joyner – who played Tanya Branning – got slightly confused between fiction and reality. Having returned specially for the anniversary, Jo's character had lots to catch up on, including how Ian Beale was doing. Sadly, it came out all wrong when she instead asked Jane Beale "How's Adam?" – a reference to Adam Woodyatt, who plays Ian.

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Jo has made no secret of the fact that she was gutted over the mistake, but at least she proved it really was live for any sceptics out there. Plus, she soldiered straight on by carrying on through the rest of the episode without a hitch, so it could have been worse. To be honest, we always thought producers were slightly cruel for not speedily writing in somebody called Adam to make her feel better.

4. Sneaking in a Fake Eileen (Coronation Street, 2015)

Corrie rightly received high praise for Deirdre Barlow's heartbreaking funeral episodes in 2015, but have you ever noticed that the episode featured a Fake Eileen?

In footage which probably shouldn't have made it into the final cut, the woman standing next to Michael Rodwell at the funeral suddenly morphed from Eileen into an impostor... then back again to the character we all know and love. Although show bosses never explained the mishap, it looked as though a stand-in for Sue Cleaver accidentally made it into the episode.

Given that poor Michael already had a fake son on his hands, we think a Fake Eileen was a step too far.

Despite 22 years in the show, Ryan Moloney became "Ryan Maloney", Colette Mann became "Collette Mann" and Zoe Cramond became "Zoe Crammond". To make matters worse, Mark Brennan's arm seemed to temporarily disappear in a botched editing job. No wonder producers speedily fixed the troublesome titles the next day.

6. Accidentally hiring a 25-year-old to play a 14-year-old schoolgirl (Coronation Street, 2015)

7. Airing the wrong episode (Neighbours, 2003)

Neighbours may have been going through a golden era in 2003, but not everything went swimmingly for the popular soap during this time. In February that year, the show's Aussie broadcaster Network Ten made the ultimate stuff-up by airing the wrong episode, broadcasting episode 4176 rather than 4175. D'oh.

Aussie fans were undoubtedly highly confused over why the action had suddenly skipped ahead and why they'd missed an entire episode's worth of Ramsay Street goodness. Rather than confuse matters further, channel bosses decided to just carry on from there – meaning that the "lost" episode didn't get an Australian airing.

Although this didn't affect matters too much in the UK, at least we could boast about getting an episode before Australian fans for once.

It's important to give brand new soap characters memorable entrance scenes, but Hollyoaks took that a little bit too far with the introduction of Myra McQueen's toyboy lover Diego in 2015. Fans were quick to notice that the hunk's campervan proudly displayed a confederate flag, which is notorious for having racist connotations.

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Hollyoaks responded swiftly to the row by editing the flag out of future episodes, meaning that it was only ever seen in E4's first-look episode. A spokesperson told us at the time: "We apologise for any offence caused to our audience, due to this oversight. The flag has been removed from any future episodes."

Emmerdale chiefs may be masters of surprise these days by killing off the likes of Holly Barton and Joanie Dingle without warning, but they weren't always so smart with their publicity strategy.

In 2011, the show went all-out to promote a huge fire which would rage through the village, leaving the lives of fan favourites in jeopardy. Speculation was high over who would be killed off, until the show accidentally released future episode spoilers to TV listings mags which read: "The village pays tribute to Terry and Viv". So much for the element of surprise.

10. Having an "offensive" shopping list (Emmerdale, 2010)

ITV

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If you thought scrutinising the soaps for mistakes and controversy was a new trend, think again. Way back in 2010, a shopping list featured as part of an Emmerdale episode which – for some reason – listed items including "piles cream" and "jam rags". (Sanitary towels, if you were wondering.)

It seemed that someone on the Emmerdale team was having a bit of light-hearted fun but hadn't cleared it with the bosses, as a spokesperson told Digital Spy at the time: "A shopping list featured in the background of a scene on Friday's episode of Emmerdale which included colloquial terms that some viewers considered inappropriate. We are looking into the matter and we apologise to any viewers if they were offended."

11. Having Ronnie aim too high with her holiday plans (EastEnders, 2016)

Philippa Rawlinson, Director of Operations and Marketing at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, later commented: "Anne Hathaway's Cottage is probably the most photographed cottage in the world, so it was no surprise eagle-eyed EastEnders viewers spotted the blunder.

"Although it may seem an idyllic holiday cottage setting, sadly it is not available for holiday lettings and continues to remain in our care as one of the country's iconic heritage attractions where Shakespeare's wife once lived." Well that settles that, then.

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